I was in my car, listening to WUNC, when a piece came on about a new report that found approximately 12 percent of kids in juvenile detention centers suffer sexual abuse while there. At some facilities, the rate is nearly one in three.

When the reporter started listing the worst facilities, I thought, please please don’t let one of them be in North Carolina. Then she said it –

Samarkand Youth Development Center in Eagle Springs, North Carolina.

According to the report, conducted by the US Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics, 33.3% of the juveniles who responded to their survey reported being abused, with 20.8 percent saying the abuse was inflicted by staff and that force was used.

These are children, in government custody, who are being victimized in ways that will impact them for the rest of their lives. When will the rest of us grow up enough to be ashamed?